Big win caps long day at SIAC Baseball Championship
Box Score
AUGUSTA, Ga. -- After finishing the completion of its first-round game at approximately 9 a.m. local time, Miles had to wait more than 12 hours before playing its second game Friday night against Tuskegee at the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Baseball Championship.
It was well past midnight once the game finished but the outcome was in hand long before the final out was made.
Xavius Burden (3-2) pitched seven strong innings and also helped himself at the plate with two hits and three runs batted in as the Golden Bears (29-19) blasted the Golden Tigers 15-2 at Lake Olmstead Stadium. The game was halted after eight innings because of the 10-run mercy rule but not before Miles pounded four Tuskegee hurlers for 15 hits - all of them after the third inning.
Going into the fourth, Miles had been hit by more pitches (three) from Tuskegee starter Jordyn Thomas (6-4) than they had hits against him (zero). But once the proverbial (and almost literal) ice was broken on a cold, windy night by a
Peyton Logan single, the floodgates opened and the Golden Bears washed out their opponents.
Kolby Brannon, who did not have a hit or official at-bat in five plate appearances, drove in the first of his three runs with a sacrifice fly to put Miles on the board.
Damion Williams added a run-scoring single for a 2-0 advantage.
The scoring never stopped for Miles, which put up crooked numbers each inning for the remainder of the contest. The Golden Bears led 5-0 before Burden ran into his only trouble in the fifth. Evan Kearse and Ryan Green drove in runs during the inning but Ricky Green struck out looking - one of six on the night for Burden - to end the threat. Burden would get those runs back on his own with a two-run single as part of a three-run sixth. Miles would score five times in the eighth on just one hit (three walks and the final three of the six hit-by-pitches came during the frame) would close out the scoring and
Adam Lucas would pitch a scoreless eighth to finish off the Golden Tigers.
Reeves Brashear and
Justin Bisharat each had two hits and two RBI.
Trevor Bates had two hits and a RBI,
Alex Bentley had two hits and scored three times, and
Ryan Bargery had a hit and scored twice for the Golden Bears. Ryan Green and Kearse each had two hits for Tuskegee.Â
Miles will await its next opponent - the winner of the Kentucky State-Albany State game - and play again at 5 p.m. A win in that game will give the Golden Bears two chances on Sunday to win one game and bring home a SIAC title.
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